Practising GERMAN Grammar Practising GERMAN Grammar third edition Martin Durrell, Katrin Kohl and Gudrun Loftus First published in Great Britain in 1993 Second edition published in 1996 Third edition published 2011 by Hodder Education Published 2013 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY, 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 2011 Martin Durrell, Katrin Kohl and Gudrun Loftus The rights of Professor Martin Durrell and Professor Katrin Kohl to be identified as Authors of this Work have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1998. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. The advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of going to press, but neither the author[s] nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress ISBN-13: 978-1-444-12017-2 (pbk) ISBN-13: 978-0-203-76790-0 (ebk) Typeset in 9.5/11.5pt Palatino by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire Contents Numbers in the chapter listings refer to the relevant exercises. A page reference is given for the first exercise on each topic. Preface Points for the user 1 Nouns 1–9 Gender 10–18 Noun plurals 19–27 Noun declension 2 Case 1 The nominative 2–5 The accusative 6–9, 13 The genitive 10–13 The dative 14–16 Apposition 17–18 Measurement phrases 19–21 Case: general 3 Personal pronouns 1 Personal pronouns: general 2–4 Reflexive and reciprocal pronouns 5, 10 Third person pronouns: general 6 Third person pronoun or prepositional adverb? 7–11 The pronoun es 4 The articles 1–2 Definite article: general 3–4 Definite article or possessive? 5–9 Uses of the articles 5 Other determiners and pronouns 1–2, 5–6, 13 Demonstratives 3–4, 17 Possessives 5–6 Interrogatives 7 Prepositional adverbs 8–13 Relative pronouns 13 The uses of der/die/das 14 all- 15–17 einer/keiner, kein 18 German equivalents for English ‘some’ and ‘any’ 19 Pronouns: general 6 Adjectives 1–3 The use of the strong and weak declensions 4–6 Declension of adjectives 7 Adjectives and the noun phrase 8–12 Adjectives used as nouns 13 Cases with adjectives 14 Adjectives with prepositions 7 Adverbs 1–2 Adverbs of direction 3–4 Adverbs of place and direction 5 The use of adjectives as adverbs 6–7 Adverbs of manner, viewpoint and attitude 8 Comparison of adjectives and adverbs 1–2 Comparative and superlative 3 Proportion expressed with je … desto 4 Forms of the superlative 9 Numerals 1 Equivalents for ‘half’ 2 Forms and phrases with -mal or Mal 10 Modal particles 1–4 Uses of the modal particles 11 Expressions of time 1 Times of the clock 2 Time phrases 3 Adverbs of time 12 Verbs: conjugation 1–3, 7, 9 Weak and strong verbs 4–5 Weak, strong and irregular verbs 6, 8 The past and the pluperfect 10–11 haben or sein in the perfect? 12 The future and the passive 13 The infinitive and the participles 1–11, 13 The infinitive with zu 11–13 The infinitive without zu 14 Uses of the infinitive 15–17 Infinitival nouns 18–19 The extended participial phrase 20 Uses of the present and past participles 21–22 German equivalents of English constructions with the ‘ing’-form 14 The uses of the tenses 1–4 The present tense 5–6 The past and the perfect 7–10 The future and the future perfect 11 The pluperfect 12–14 German equivalents for the English progressive tenses 15–17 Use of the tenses: general 15 The passive 1–6 The werden-passive 7–9 The werden-passive and the sein-passive 10 Von or durch with the passive 11–15 Alternative passive constructions 16–17 The passive: general 16 Mood: the imperative and subjunctive 1–2 The imperative 3 The imperative and the werden-passive 4 The imperative and Konjunktiv I 5 Konjunktiv II 6–11 Conditional sentences 12–17 Indirect speech 18–21 Other uses of the subjunctive 22–23 The subjunctive mood: general 17 The modal auxiliaries 1 Tenses and mood forms of modal verbs 2–3 Modal verbs in subordinate clauses 4 The omission of the infinitive after the modal verbs 5 Dürfen 6 Können, kennen or wissen? 7 Sollen 8 Sollen, müssen, dürfen 9–16 The modal auxiliaries: general 18 Verbs: valency 1–3 Valency, complements and sentence patterns 4–6 The impersonal subject es 7–9, 16 The accusative object 8–10 The dative object 11 Objects and cases 12–18 Prepositional objects 19 The valency of verbs: general 19 Conjunctions and subordination 1 Coordinating conjunctions 2 Conjunctions of time 3 Causal conjunctions 4 The use of indem 5 Conjunctions with so- 6–7 Conjunctions: general 20 Prepositions 1 Uses of bis 2 Time phrases with prepositions 3–8 Prepositions and cases 9–12 Prepositions with similar usage 13 German equivalents for English ‘to’ 14 Prepositions: general 21 Word order 1–5 Clause structure and the position of the verb 6–10 Initial position in main clauses 11 The order of other elements in the sentence 12 The place of the pronouns 13–14 The order of objects 15 The order of elements inside and outside the verbal bracket 16–18 The order of adverbials 19–20 The position of nicht 21 The position of prepositional objects 22 Word order in multiple subordinate clauses 23 The placing of elements after the final portions of the verb 24 Word order: general 22 Word formation 1 The formation of nouns 2–3 The formation of adjectives 4–8 The formation of verbs 9 Word formation: general 23 Spelling and punctuation 1 The use of capitals 2 The use of the comma 3 The use of capitals, ß and commas Answers to the exercises Glossary of grammatical terms Acknowledgements Preface Practising German Grammar is intended for students of German at school and university with a good basic command of the language. It is particularly aimed at students who wish to enhance their competence in the written language. The exercises will help consolidate key grammatical structures of German and develop confidence in applying them. The Workbook covers all the major aspects of German grammar, and is designed to accompany Hammer’s German Grammar and Usage (GGU), revised by Martin Durrell (5th edition, Hodder Education, London, 2011). The chapters are set out in parallel to the chapters in GGU, and each exercise has a reference to the appropriate section. At this level, individual learners have widely differing needs and learning strategies. Correspondingly, this book offers a uniquely wide range of different exercise types. Exercises consisting of individual phrases and sentences practise essential grammatical structures. Text-based exercises enable the learner to see these structures in a fuller context, while working with advertisements, modern fiction, scientific explanations or managerial guidelines. Projects encourage students to discover grammatical regularities themselves. All these exercises have their place at different stages in the process of learning German, and individual teachers and students will select those which they find most appropriate, congenial and effective. A key provides answers to all the exercises, with alternatives where appropriate and explanations where necessary. The key to projects and open-ended exercises offers a selection of probable findings or solutions together with hints on additional possibilities or further exploitation of the material. This makes the book suitable for use with or without a teacher, although some of the projects and text-based exercises will be most rewarding when undertaken in small groups. Advice on tackling the various kinds of exercise and on using the book with and without a teacher is given in the section Points for the user. The book had its origin in material used with first-year undergraduates at the University of Oxford. Additional exercises were then designed to widen the range of competence for which the book would be suitable, and to cater for different learning styles. Most of the ‘Projects’ were developed over a number of years and have been used at all levels of undergraduate teaching in Alberta, London, Manchester and Oxford. The authors would like to thank Professor Richard Sheppard for giving the original impetus for the project, and Dr Sonia Brough and Tristam Carrington-Windo for their assistance and advice. Above all, thanks are due to the students who have contributed to the development of this book. Martin Durrell and Katrin Kohl dedicate this edition to their co-author and colleague Gudrun Loftus, who sadly died in tragic circumstances in autumn 2010 while this new edition was in the course of preparation. Points for the user Working with German in terms of ‘rules’ is a short cut to mastering the patterns of the language. When you read German newspapers, magazines or books, and learn to write in German, you need to understand aspects of the language which you may have paid little attention to so far, e.g. case endings or word order. While you can get across a practical message without knowing such details, you will need to master them if you want to communicate sophisticated ideas and be taken seriously by native speakers. General hints � Use the exercises to work with the patterns you learn rather than to test what you don’t know. Avoid doing them mechanically, and exploit the variety of exercise types to vary your learning. � Go to and fro between grammar explanations and the exercises; references to Hammer’s German Grammar and Usage (GGU) are given at the top of each exercise. From the explanations, select main points to write on individual cards, using colour pens and diagrams to make them memorable. Write examples on the back. Check your cards regularly, putting each one aside once you are familiar with it. Then do an exercise relating to that section of GGU. Write any further important points on new cards. � You will gain maximum benefit from most exercises by splitting them up into two or more parts and doing them on different days. � Check the Answers only after finishing the whole exercise, as a completely separate stage. If you can go over your results with a teacher, it may be best not to consult the Answers at all – follow the teacher’s advice to get the most out of the exercises and discussion. � Do the exercise again later on, after revising the explanations. � All ‘Projects’ and some text-based exercises are marked . They are best discussed in one or more groups and with teacher support, since answers may not be straightforward. You can do them profitably on your own, but should not allow yourself to become discouraged if you find them difficult, or if results are less neat than expected! Individual words, phrases and sentence (e.g. Ch. 1, Ex. 2, 7 and 8) Such exercises are useful for practising a specific grammar point, though you will also need to work with other types of exercise in which the point occurs less predictably in a wider context. Vary the way you use such exercises. � If you are familiar with the area of grammar covered, you could adopt the following procedure: 1. Do the exercise with knowledge and guesswork over a few days. 2. Study the relevant section in GGU. 3. Check what you have written against GGU or, even better, do the exercise again independently and then check GGU. 4. Check the Answers, and look at GGU to see if you can find explanations for any discrepancies that might remain. � If the material is relatively new, prepare more thoroughly: 1. Study the relevant section of GGU over a few days and familiarise yourself with the explanations and examples, using cards and any other methods you find helpful. 2. Do the exercise, preferably spread over a few days. 3. Check what you have written against GGU. 4. Check the Answers, and look at GGU to see if you can find explanations for any discrepancies that might remain. � After checking the Answers, write the words or sentences on cards, and read them out loud. Learning grammar through such examples will help you to communicate effectively, using what you have learnt. � Make up your own gap-fill exercises using the example sentences given in GGU, if possible working with a friend. Text-based exercises (e.g. Ch. 1, Ex. 18, 26 and 27) These show you how the patterns of the language work in context. The texts are from original sources, though some have been shortened, with occasional alterations. Because the German has not been specifically written to illustrate a grammatical point, these exercises often contain complex structures. Don’t be put off – remember that language is not organised in pigeonholes, and use the diversity to develop an interest in how German works. � Study the relevant section of GGU before doing the exercise, and check your answers against GGU afterwards. Then check the Answers. � You could then try to find a similar text to devise your own exercise. This is normally best done with the support of a teacher. Projects (e.g. Ch. 1, Ex. 1 and 10) These ask you to find out for yourself about the patterns of the language, on the basis of a text you select yourself. Thereby you will be familiarising yourself ‘automatically’ with the grammar point. Your findings will never be straightforward. Remember that grammatical ‘rules’ are simply a means of highlighting regularities in the language. In doing a project you will investigate the usefulness of certain classifications, and you may even come up with a better one! For those times when you feel in need of moral support, quotations have been included from Mark Twain’s The Awful German Language. 1 Nouns In German, a young lady has no sex, while a turnip has. Think what over-wrought reverence that shows for the turnip, and what callous disrespect for the girl. (Mark Twain) 1 Gender (GGU Section 1.1) PROJECT: Because ‘things’ are always referred to by ‘it’ in English, English learners of German tend to guess the gender of an unfamiliar word as neuter. Take all the simple (i.e. non-compound) nouns beginning with the letter ‘L’ in a dictionary or all the simple nouns in a 1000-word passage from a novel or newspaper. � Work out the proportion of nouns belonging to each gender. � From these findings, estimate what the chances are of getting a gender correct if you randomly guess that ‘things’ are neuter. 2 Gender (GGU Section 1.1.8c) Most nouns with the prefix Ge- are neuter, although there are about a dozen common masculines and a dozen common feminines. Identify the gender of the following nouns by supplying the correct endings for the article and adjective given. 1. d___ deutsch___ Geschichte 2. ein___ künstlich___ Gebiss 3. d___ schwer___ Gepäck 4. d___ zehnt___ Gebot 5. d___ häufig___ Gebrauch 6. ein___ akut___ Gefahr 7. ein___ fürchterlich___ Gedränge 8. ein___ jung___ Geselle 9. ein___ streng___ Gesetz 10. d___ bitter___ Geschmack 11. ein___ politisch___ Gespräch 12. ein___ klug___ Gedanke 13. ein___ lyrisch___ Gedicht 14. ein___ fest___ Gebühr 15. ein___ zierlich___ Gestalt 16. ein___ leicht___ Geburt 17. ein___ prickelnd___ Gefühl 18. ein___ bescheiden___ Gewinn